Top five news stories of 2017
Toyota’s facelifted Prado was this year’s most-read newsIt’s Australia’s favourite large SUV and changes doesn’t come round often, so the second major upgrade for Toyota’s evergreen Prado in as little as two years is big news.
But while it’s little surprise our mostly widely read news for 2017 concerned the most popular model in one of the fastest growing sales segments, also piquing the interest of motoring.com.au readers this year was news of an iconic American muscle-car, a top-selling small car and a new premium ute.
Here are our top five news stories for 2017, in terms of the number of people that read them.
Rounding out the five top news stories for 2017 is none other than Kia’s rear-wheel drive, twin-turbo V6-powered Stinger GT.
Interestingly, however, our top Stinger news article – from June -- wasn’t about the car’s reveal, first technical details or its Nurburgring lap record, but instead focused on its interior.
It’s not every day the world’s oldest car-maker enters a new vehicle segment, and certainly not one as popular as Australia’s booming one-tonne ute market.
Naturally, therefore, the all-new Mercedes-Benz X-Class was always going to make waves, as evidenced by the popularity of various news articles both before and after our first drive in October.
Surprisingly, perhaps, our biggest news about the German twin-cab, which is still a year away from your local Benz dealership, was a story in February about the sleek(er) concept version arriving here for promotional purposes.
The Mazda3 was Australia’s top-selling car before Toyota’s Corolla regained the crown and then both were gazumped by the all-conquering HiLux ute.
So it’s no surprise that news of a revolutionary new version of the Mazda3 – based on an all-new platform, powered by world-first HCCI technology and wrapped in a sexy new bodyshell – pricks up ears.
That’s what we reported in August, two months before the Mazda Kai concept previewed exactly that at the Tokyo motor show, and it became the year’s third best read news article.
We’ve been writing for years about the potential for an official release of the bow-tie brand’s iconic Camaro coupe in Australia, where exactly that finally happened earlier this month.
But you might have forgotten that we first broke the story in July – that HSV will import and convert the iconic US muscle-car – before it became official.
Our exclusive scoop of the ‘Camaro by HSV’ -- and the fact the next Corvette will follow it on sale here by 2020 – was the second (or fourth, if you count all three Prado newsers) biggest news article for this year, and also sent our social media pages into a frenzy.
The new-look Prado -- which went on sale in November bringing a new 200 Series LandCruiser-style front-end design, refreshed interior and more safety features – follows the latest model’s release in 2009, it awful facelift in 2013 and its new downsized 2.8-litre turbo-diesel in 2015.
But it wasn’t just the subject of our most popular news article this year, it was central to our top three.
Topping the charts was a story revealing leaked images of the tougher looking new Prado in May, closely followed by our list of the five best things about it after Prado's world debut at the Frankfurt motor show in September.
Proving this was no flash in the pan, the first official details from Frankfurt formed the basis of our third most read news story, and that more than 57,000 people viewed our grainy smartphone video of the Prado from Frankfurt within days of its reveal.
Full Australian details of the 2018 Prado in November and two subsequent comparos with the Ford Everest and Land Rover Discovery show Australia really still is LandCruiser country.
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